Expanded mental health services for children and adolescents

From Citizen's Committee for Children

New York State and US Department of Justice Reach Settlement
Regarding Juvenile Placement Facilities

On July 14, 2010, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), the State of New York and the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) reached a settlement agreement to remedy DOJ’s findings that four OCFS juvenile placement facilities systematically violated juveniles’ constitutional rights in the areas of protection from harm and mental health care.

In 2009, DOJ issued findings that staff at the facilities consistently and excessively used a disproportionate degree of force to gain control of youth, staff overused restraints often causing injury to youth, facilities failed to investigate uses of force and failed to discipline staff found to have used excessive force, and the facilities failed to provide adequate behavioral management programs and treatment programs. In December 2009, CCC issued a report, Inside Out: Youth Experience Inside New York’s Juvenile Placement System, which is a longitudinal study of boys in juvenile placement. CCC's report also documents that mental health and other needs of youth (e.g., substance abuse, educational, youth development) were often not met and that youth safety concerns were pervasive, reflecting a corrections-based approach to serving youth in placement rather than a treatment-based approach.

Key provisions of the settlement agreement include that OCFS will limit the use of restraints; OCFS will limit “face down” restraints to no more than three minutes, train staff to monitor for distress and have the child medically reviewed within four hours; OCFS will require prompt reporting of staff misconduct; the state shall provide an integrated, adequate, appropriate and effective behavioral treatment program at the facilities; and OCFS will require standardization of documentation for prescribing psychotropic medication to juveniles in placement.

While the settlement applies only to the four facilities investigated by DOJ, OCFS Commissioner Carrion has indicated her commitment to expanding to other facilities over time. It is clear that New York State must make needed investments to ensure that youth in placement are safe and have their needs met.

In addition, to successfully reform juvenile justice, the state must also make significant and long overdue investments in community-based mental-health, youth development, and educational supports that youth so desperately need and must develop a more rational and fair reimbursement system for cost sharing pertaining to placement and alternatives to placement programs.

CCC’s report can be accessed here
http://www.cccnewyork.org/publications/CCCjuvenilejusticereport2009.pdf